Renewed Parker gives Spurs edge

It had been a while since Tony Parker had all the pieces in place. It had been a while since his teardrop dropped, his spin move spun and his jump shot sank.

In short, it had been a while since the Spurs’ All-Star point guard enjoyed a night like Wednesday at the AT&T Center.

Making use of every trick up his sleeve and every shot in his arsenal, Parker scored 24 of his 28 points in the second half to help the Spurs score a 102-91 Game 2 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and maintain control of their Western Conference first-round series.

“It’s been a battle,” Parker said, and he would know.

Never quite the same since a March 1 ankle sprain, and fighting knee, neck and shin injuries along the way, Parker emerged in a big way in Game 2, putting up a second half straight out of his January and February, when he was a fringe MVP candidate.

With the win, the second-seeded Spurs grabbed a 2-0 lead in the series, which shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Friday.

If this Parker boards the team charter, the Spurs might well come back with a sweep.

“Some things Tony’s not yet confident with, movement-wise,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “But he’s getting better every game, every day. He’s much closer being whole. I don’t think he’s going to have a problem competing and playing like we’re used to seeing him.”

Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard each chipped in 16 points for the Spurs, with Leonard adding a team-best seven rebounds.

Manu Ginobili added 13 points off the bench and sparked the Spurs’ to the lead late in a first half that saw Parker still looking for his footing.

Fresh off an 18-point effort in Game 1, Ginobili hit two 3-pointers in the final 1:08 of the first half, the centerpiece of 13-4 run that left the Spurs ahead 56-48 at intermission.

“He’s just a big game-time player,” said D’Antoni, a former coach in the Italian League, Ginobili’s long-ago stomping grounds. “That’s been his M.O. since I’ve known him in Italy.”

There was some good luck involved in the Spurs’ half-closing run as well. With a little more than a minute left in the second quarter, Ginobili whipped a line-drive pass that connected with the top of DeJuan Blair’s head.

If Blair were actually his listed height of 6-foot-7, it might have been a turnover. Instead, the ball bounced off the top of Blair’s head, 20 feet in the air to Bonner. Bonner shipped the ball to Ginobili for an open 3 that pushed a two-point Spurs advantage to five.

There was considerably more skill and execution involved in the rest of the Spurs’ rout.

Before tipoff, Popovich acknowledged a better feeling about his team after the defensive effort of Game 1, then issued a challenge for Game 2.

With the way Steve Nash limped en route to nine points, and with Blake hobbling off with the dreaded strained right hamstring as well, the Lakers’ offense is likely to look more ragged in L.A., not less. Worse for the Lakers, already injured star Kobe Bryant isn’t showing up any time soon.

The story of the game was Parker, who began to pick up steam as the night went along.

“I was just staying in the flow of the team,” is how Parker described his four-point first half. “Second half, we were struggling a little bit offensively and I decided to be aggressive.”

Parker had 11 of his points in a span of 3:03 of the third quarter as the Spurs began to pull away. He closed the game with nine more in a row. After, Parker was asked if this as close to put together as he has felt in a while.

“By far,” Parker said.

As the series shifts to Southern California, with the Spurs firmly in command, that should scare the Lakers most of all.